Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett
Tennessee State Library and Archives
Civil War Resources
Civil War Source Book
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| A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
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| Camp: | A temporary place for the repose of troops, whether for one night or a long period of time. |
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| Cantonment: | Refers to the quartering of troops in temporary structures, sometimes distributed among towns or villages, or when placed in huts at the end of a campaign. |
| Capital: | An imaginary line that bisects the salient angle, dividing a work into two symmetrical parts. |
| Caponnier: | A work projecting perpendicularly from the main work to provide flanking fire in the ditch and along the front. The work could also be bomb proofed and contain loopholes and serve as a line of communication or a passage to another work. |
| Casemate: | A bombproof structure made of timber and earth and constructed of post and beam form, used to house artillery. In permanent fortifications it could also be used as quarters for the garrison, a powder magazine, a hospital, or as a last place of refuge within a fortification if overrun by the enemy. |
| Cavalier: | An elevated artillery position within a fort, commanding its interior and the surrounding countryside. This was sometimes constructed on the terreplein of a bastion or curtain. |
| Cheek: | This refers to the sides of an embrasure and was often revetted with fascine, gabions, or sand bags. |
| Chevaux-de-frise: | An obstacle made of a wooden shaft or body from which wood projections or spears radiated in four directions. They were used to obstruct passages, protect a breach in the line, or form an impediment to cavalry. |
| Citadel: | A small and strongly enclosed work, located in the interior of a fort, used as a final place of defense. Sometimes referred to as the keep. |
| City-class Ironclad: | The United States Navy created these vessels as their first operational ironclads. They were designed with a single paddle wheel located mid-ship and enclosed within the protection of the ship’s armament. There were a total of seven ironclads built by the U.S. during the war and all of them were named after cities. They were also known as "Pook’s Turtles" (after the designer) or sometimes as "Eads Ironclads"(after their builder). |
| Company: | The smallest tactical unit of soldiers, usually containing 50 to 100 men, commanded by a captain. |
| Commanding Position: | A position that overlooked another position or surrounding country and enabled an army to give a plunging fire. |
| Corps: | A military unit of two to four divisions, commanded by a major general in the Union armies or by a lieutenant general in the Confederate armies. |
| Cottonclad: | Many Union and Confederate vessels were given extra protection by stacking cotton bales on their decks as barricades against small arms and light artillery fire. Larger vessels were known to have carried over 900 bales. Some Confederate "cottonclads" used compressed layers of cotton between the heavy walls of their gundecks. Most of the Confederate cottonclads were reinforced on the bow and also carried an iron prow for ramming. |
| Counterscarp: | A wall located on the far side of the parapet ditch, opposite the exterior slope and scarp wall of the parapet. If the entrenchment is constructed with a glacis, the counterscarp wall will also include a banquette, interior slope, covered way and glacis slope. Most of the entrenchments constructed in Tennessee were built without the use of a glacis. |
| Covered Way: | In permanent fortifications, a narrow walkway between the counterscarp and the glacis that covered troop movements and provided an outer line of defense for infantry. Very few of these entrenchments were constructed during the war. Union Fort Negley in Nashville was the largest inland masonry fortification built during the war, and it contained covered ways. |
| Cremaillere or Indented Line: | A zigzag line of field fortifications. This type of earthwork was placed between two advanced works that were too far apart to protect each other as well as the space between them. |
| Cross Fire: | Rifle or cannon fire delivered from two or more directions against the same target or point of ground in front of a work. |
| Crow’s Foot: | A star-shaped obstacle (also called Caltrop) made of iron prongs that radiate in all directions. When placed on the ground, at least one point will always point upward, forming an obstacle for troops and especially cavalry. They appeared in warfare as early as the Bronze Age and are still in use. |
| Cunette: | A small ditch within the main ditch that acted as a drain or run-off for water. |
| Curtain: | A section of the rampart that existed between two bastions and connected the flanks of the bastions. |